In past years, in the fall, I’ve gone away in the fall to take pictures of the fall foliage.  This year, because I was working as a contract employee in my main job (and did not have any paid time off), I could not take the time off to spend a day or two shooting upstate as I like to do.  However, that does not mean that I didn’t shoot — I just had to change a few things.  Instead, I ended up shooting in two different places on Sunday mornings and afternoons – Hacklebarney State Park in New Jersey and Wave Hill in the Bronx.

Hacklebarney State Park is a beautiful park in North-Central New Jersey.  There are lots of great hiking trails and great scenic beauty.  There were also lots of waterfalls, which, for me is always a treat as I’m a big sucker for waterfall shots.  However, after reviewing the shots I took, I found that I wasn’t truly impressed with any of them.  They were okay, I suppose, but they lacked that special… spark that I like to find in my shots.  Perhaps I’ll go back and revisit them in a month or so and see if my feelings have changed.  But let me be up front in saying that the park is a beautiful place — the fact that I didn’t come away with any great shots is not the fault of the park.  That lies with me.

In any event, that’s also not to say that every shot I took was bad.  There were a few that I took that I thought were decent.  Here are some of them.

The other place I went to for fall foliage shots was Wave Hill, in the Bronx.   Wave Hill is a public botanic garden with a great view of the Hudson River and the Palisades.   I had heard about the park before and had wanted to go there, but every time I planned it, something interfered with those plans.  Finally, I managed to get there – and I was not disappointed.

Wave Hill is a small park – you can easily cover it in half a day – but packed in that small area is an incredible amount of scenic beauty.  The fact that I was there at the height of the fall foliage season only  made it even better.  I took a lot of shots that day and here are some of my favorites.

Autumn Color at Wave Hill, Bronx NY

The sun over a tree at Wave Hill in Bronx, NY

The Reading Bench

I love this last shot.  I saw this little bench sitting under this big ancient tree, with the fall color and the Hudson and Palisades in the background and could not resist taking this shot.  This is just the type of shot where a person could easily while away the afternoon with a good book and cool drink on that bench.  I think that I’ll eventually blow that one up and hang it on a wall somewhere in my home.

That’s all for the nature portion of the update.  Afterwards, I’ll catch you up with the shots I’ve taken around New York City in the last few months.  There are some really nice ones in that bunch, so please check back.

When you ask someone to name a famous place in New York, I believe you’ll find that most people will respond with one of three responses…. Times Square, the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty.  Those are, in my opinion, the “big three.”  That’s not to state that there aren’t other places that people would mention — New York has lots of great places, but I believe those three would dominate the answers given.

That being said (and the fact that I work in Times Square), I figured that Times Square would be the best bet for a photo.  As it is, I’ve had some success shooting in Times Square in the past.  In fact, one of my favorite photos was taken two years ago in a snowfall in Times Square:

There is so much constantly going on in Times Square that there are plenty of different ways to shoot the scene.  You could focus on the people, telling their stories.  You could focus on the brilliant signage, instantly recognizable anywhere.  You could focus on the buildings and the famous brands that have storefronts there… and on and on.

I didn’t have a chance to shoot during the day… during the winter the day is short and I’m usually stuck indoors working during the daylight hours.  So, considering I was going to be shooting at night, I decided to focus on the colors and lights and activity of Times Square.  I was going to try to soak up as much color and light as possible for my shot.  I found a spot off to the side of Broadway (you can’t shoot in the middle of the street at rush hour!), attached my camera to my tripod, zoomed my lens out as wide as it would go and shot.  In the end, I shot from several locations around Times Square and came away with two shots that I really liked.

Here’s the shot I submitted:

Times Square on a winter evening.

Here is the one I did not submit:

I would have loved to submit both, but in the end, I had to pick one.  I asked several people for their opinions and most of them chose the top shot, which is the one I was leaning towards too.

What do you think?  Did I pick the right shot?  Or do you like the lower one better?  Let me know…

Zev

I never really noticed how late in October the fall foliage season lasts here in New York City, and I was kind of surprised by how much color there was to shoot.  I decided to try to do my best to have the color “explode” off the page in a lot of the shots, and I think I managed to succeed.

I’ve been displaying these shots on Facebook over the last few days and have, so far, received quite a bit of positive feedback on them.  Some of the shots were released on Facebook while others are being shown here for the first time.  Feel free to scroll through the images…

I had such a great time taking these pictures that I think I’m going to take my birthday off of work every year and do this…

As always, comments are welcome, encouraged and appreciated.  Please feel free to let me know what you think of them.  Which are your favorites?

Zev

As it turns out, that week happened to be “Greetings From..” week in 52 Frames and so, I submitted this shot to the album.  It was well received and was named the #3 picture in the album.

By one of those odd quirks of fate, this past week we had a major snowstorm here in New York City and, again, it was also “Greetings From…”  week.  I decided to try and capture a similar scene, but this time showing the other end of Times Square.  This shot is the result…

What do you think?  Does this photo live up to last year’s?  Or was last year’s better?  Please feel free to let me know in the comments.

Zev

Each year, the theme for the last week is Artist’s Choice — in other words, you can submit whatever you like.  I decided to go and shoot some Christmas lights and  then work with them a bit in Photoshop and using some of Topaz Labs’s tools.  Here’s the resulting shot:

I’m looking forward to starting another year of 52Frames.

As always, comments, critiques and criticisms are welcome, encouraged and appreciated.

Zev

I simply love how the water flows over the rocks and through the channels in the above shot.

This one was far more peaceful.  Here the water gently flowed downstream, creating this picturesque scene.

Which do you prefer?  The strong, roaring current or the serene, quiet stream?

Zev

One of my favorite parts of the park is The Lake.  The Lake is located (mostly) on the west side of the park from 72nd to 77th street.  One of the most-photographed places in Central Park is Bethesda Fountain, which is right by The Lake.

There is a path that goes around The Lake, which includes many of the iconic spots of the park, including the Bow Bridge and the Boathouse.   After spending some time around the fountain, we walked the path around The Lake.  This shot was taken from that path.

As always, feel free to comment on the picture.  In addition, please feel free to like my Facebook page and share my pictures.

Unfortunately, however, it seems that I lost most of my trip to Macedonia Brook State Park.  This is particularly frustrating because I have an automatic online backup solution, but it seems that it didn’t quite finish backing up those shots.  It also didn’t finish backing up my Ricketts Glen and Central Park photo shoots, but, fortunately, I hadn’t yet deleted those shots off my card, so I was able to recover them (I did lose some of the editing work I had done on those, but I can recover them and, truth to tell, I wasn’t all that happy with the first edits anyway).

At some point in the near future, I’ll write up a post about my computer-crash and data recovery experience and the lessons I’ve learned.  However, for now, I’m here to give you two more pics from Ricketts Glen.

Feel free to enjoy these shots and to share this post.  If you have any questions about these shots, please feel free to ask in the comments.

Zev

I plan to have the rest of my Ricketts Glen shots up this week.  If you love waterfalls and you love beautiful places, I highly recommend spending a day there.  Just remember to bring good hiking boots!

Zev